The U.S. Government wants to know about everyone and everything, sometimes even keeping their information to themselves. In The Pyramids and the Pentagon: The Government’s Top Secret Pursuit of Mystical Relics, Ancient Astronauts, and Lost Civilizations, renowned author Nick Redfern tries to link the government’s interest and knowledge in the topic of past history, relics, aliens and artifacts.

This two hundred and eight-four page soft cover book has a light brown jacket with three photos depicting the Pyramids, the Pentagon and the Face of Mars on the front with one review and a description of the book contents with the author’s small photograph on the back. It is written in casual format with no noticeable grammatical or typographical errors.

In addition to a small dedication and acknowledgment page with table of contents, there is a short introduction at the beginning of the book. About a dozen black and white (some grainy) photographs are included inside. A short conclusion is followed by nineteen pages of bibliography, five pages of index and a one page about the author with other written works mentioned.

This quick read is a documentary of how governments (especially the United States and England) want to learn, change, or use for their advantage information about past historical relics, religious artifacts and mystical or lost civilizations. Redfern discusses the government’s interest in topics ranging from the biblical Dead Sea Scrolls, Noah’s Ark, the Ark of the Covenant or the Holy Grail to the Egyptian Pyramids, the Dancing Stones, Stonehenge, and the Face of Mars. Each topic tries to correlate the government’s interest (secretive or not), cover-up and tracking of either the people involved or the object itself.

Redfern does his homework in mentioning names of individuals or groups involved both from the public and governmental viewpoint. Although most of the governmental documentation is hearsay or considered “top-secret,” (several times it is only a relative’s viewpoint of what someone stated previously), he tries to connect the dots on its involvement. He concludes the government perhaps seeks out strange happenings or artifacts to learn their mysteries and duplicate them for their own gain. Be it for religious, occult or even alien backing, world governments do not know enough about such topics and could be and are still playing the “one-upmanship” game for world domination and control.

This reader found the book’s reference to the 1940s and 1950s interesting as most of the U.S. government’s participation and research started at this pivotal time period. It is ironic how much of Redfern’s findings were related to the Bible and its lengthy history. Too often governmental reports had weak witnesses or undocumented proof so more photographs, especially of any U.S. declassified documents, would have been helpful.